Eight Who've Been Helped Seize Chance To Aid Others

October 27, 1995|By LIZABETH HALL; Courant Correspondent

EAST HARTFORD — Some hear voices that aren't there or see faces that don't exist. Others get blues so dark they can't get out of bed.

Whatever demons affect their peace of mind, the clients of Inter- community Mental Health Group at 281 Main St. have two things in common: They suffer from mental health disabilities and depend on the assistance of others.

Saturday, eight clients who usually receive help will instead offer some assistance by sharing their stories of success in finding jobs.

The occasion is Make a Difference Day, sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, a nonprofit group that encourages volunteerism. Throughout the country individuals, businesses and groups will volunteer their time on a project of their own making.

The eight-person panel is made up of graduates of the center's Career Opportunities program, which matches clients who want to work with vocational counselors. They will relate their experiences with other people who have just entered the program.

``I think it's a great idea for our clients to volunteer their time,'' said Michael Lupinacci, a vocational counselor at the agency.

``It's a boost to their self-esteem,'' he said. ``They can feel important by being the teacher and the enablers and showing and sharing their situations with people who want to become employed.''

New medications have helped people with mental health disabilities live in the community. For some, the disability emerges during childhood and endures; for others it is an episode that erupts mid-life or mid-career and then recedes.

``For a lot of people work is very important,'' said Patricia Porteous, director of the Career Opportunities program. ``They all have the value that as an adult you should be working. It's very frustrating and hard for them if they can't.''

Because mental illness is a disability, clients generally receive some type of assistance, from Social Security to workers' compensation. But when they can work, that is often not enough financially or spiritually.

The people who will speak include a man training for a career in computer-assisted drafting, another assembling bicycles in a bicycle shop, a registered nurse working in a hospital and a nurse's aide. Lupinacci declined to identify the speakers by name.

Even if the work is only part- time, it gives people ``a reason for living and getting up and makes them a little more self-sufficient and gives them a little extra money to spend on a movie,'' he said.

``A lot of people with psychiatric disabilities are told they can do landscaping work or work in a grocery store . . . but that doesn't have to be the case,'' he said.

``A lot of people with psychiatric disabilities are told they can do landscaping work or work in a grocery store...but that doesn't have to be the case," he said.